The government of Zimbabwe has recently for instance put forward an NGO Bill to replace the former Private Organisation Act. The proposed bill, and in particular its clauses on the registration of NGOs and the funding of local NGOs, provokes considerable concern and will have a serious impact on the work of NGOs in the country. It enables the Zimbabwean government to limit the number of organizations eligible for registration and imposes such restrictive administrative, financial and operational conditions that many NGOs would be forced to suspend their operations.

The bill will seriously affect the work carried out by the EU’s Humanitarian Aid Office, ECHO, since its implementing partners in Zimbabwe are international NGOs and UN agencies. ECHO is closely monitoring the evolution of the situation in an attempt to adapt ongoing programmes and future planning to the rapidly changing environment. At the same time, they are exerting political pressure on the government of Zimbabwe to stop the progress of the bill, but so far in vain. Last week, the bill passed its first parliamentary reading. Two more readings in parliament and presidential approval will be required before the bill becomes law.

The threat of the NGO bill is heightened by the prospect of serious food shortages. Although the government announced a bumper harvest of 2.4 million tonnes of maize, this is generally believed to be a gross overestimation and it is probably more likely to be less than half this amount. Current stocks will be sufficient for a maximum of three months, but despite this the government is refusing to allow the United Nations World Food Programme to conduct a general distribution of food aid.

Large sections of the Zimbabwean population are dependent on the aid distributed through ECHO’s current €15 million Global Plan, working on humanitarian coordination, logistical support to emergency food aid operations, food security, water and sanitation, nutrition, HIV/AIDS mitigation, assistance to Internally Displaced Persons. However, such humanitarian aid can only of course continue with the government’s cooperation and that in Zimbabwe is not easy.